► Skoda’s smallest SUV updated for 2024
► New engines and styling
► Does it stand out in its class?
The Skoda Kamiq is a hard car to pin down. It could fall into several different classes and yet also none – not quite a hatchback, not quite an SUV, not quite a crossover. We’ll just call it a baby SUV for now, but what the Kamiq absolutely has been is a smash hit for the marque.
It’s now the overall second best-selling model in the range, and the best-selling in a number of Western European countries. Off the back of the car’s success, Skoda has sought to enhance the somewhat identity confused Kamiq with a facelift of cosmetic and internal upgrades for 2024.
Updated styling?
The pre-facelift model was utterly inoffensive and passive in nearly every way, a car that felt like it apologised for everyone else being too loud, or sharp, or common, or design-y or try-hard. Skoda has tried to rectify the Kamiq’s self-effacing image with a few styling tweaks to push its likeness closer to that of an SUV.
Have they worked? Marginally.
The updated Kamiq’s consistent shape and size with the last model keep it in a bit of a nebulous area of identity, but the larger and more upright grille along with a new two-becomes-three headlight structure at least add a little more drama to the front end.
Sticking to the headlights, Skoda has made subtle tweaks to the Kamiq’s headlight design with slightly thinner daytime running light strips and larger, brighter high beam lights.
For the 2024 facelift, Skoda also introduces optional LED Matrix beam headlights to the Kamiq for the first time, capable of blending out oncoming traffic so drivers can leave them on constantly without the risk of dazzling other road users into a ditch.
What about the engines?
The 2024 Kamiq receives a pinch more engine power in certain configurations, but not much. For the first time, the Kamiq is available with two 1.0-litre TSI engines from the evo2 generation of Volkswagen’s EA211 engine family. The more powerful of the two engines has 114bhp – 6bhp more than its predecessor – while the entry-level version remains at 94bhp.
For a little more kick, the Kamiq is also available with a 1.5-litre engine that produces 148bhp. Both the top-end 1.5-litre and 114bhp 1.0-litre cars are available with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox. The bottom spec car has to do with a five-speed manual only.
It’s a Skoda, so it must be practical…
Not surprisingly, despite the Kamiq looking a bit SUV-ish with its roof bars and silvery bits, the ride height is much closer to a regular hatchback. In fact, you sit fairly low.
The Kamiq offers one of the most spacious cabins of all the compact crossovers; space in the rear is impressive, even with a pair of adults in the front.
Touches like actual bins in the door bins, grippy cupholders, tray tables in the back and a panoramic roof with a cover that slides to the front (freeing up headroom in the back) means the Kamiq is one of the more family-friendly crossovers. Or hatchbacks.
What’s the rest of the interior like?
Unsurprisingly the 400-litre boot is on a par with the related T-Cross and Arona, with two heights possible for the boot floor and an optional electric tailgate if you’re feeling lazy.
Very pleasant; very sensible; very Skoda, and finished like a new budget airline jet. The car is now available in three trim configurations: S, SE and Monte Carlo. Skoda has adorned the interiors of the lower two trims with new soft materials for a ‘living room’ feel, including a splash of cloth on the passenger side of the dashboard.
Overall, the effect works – the Kamiq interior is a wholly pleasant place to be. Whether the same can be said for the Kamiq in the more expensive Monte Carlo spec is up for debate. In this format, the Kamiq receives red piping across the cabin and flashes of carbon fibre for a more racy feel, though at the cost of comfort as soft surfaces vanish.
A Juke is more interesting and the latest Captur may look techier with its huge screen, but the Kamiq subdued and neat. There’s little to complain about.
What about tech?
The SE Kamiq now features an 8.25-inch infotainment display as standard while the SE L and Monte Carlo editions receive a 9.2-inch touchscreen infotainment display as standard.
The wireless charging phone box is now three times more powerful and features a cooling system so as not to overheat phones on charge as you drive along. By virtue of the box’s design, I found placing my phone on charge very easy and simple to connect up on the go. The unit also features more powerful USB-C ports, increasing from 15 to 45 watts.
Skoda has also responded to criticism of the previous Kamiq’s dire air conditioning usability. The new Kamiq now has a Climatronic panel that is much easier to use, and gone is the infuriating fogging up effect that was all-too common in the last car.
How does it drive?
The little three-cylinder engine sounds has a distinctive hum that never quite becomes intrusive, but still you’re aware it’s there. It is not an engine for any sort of enthusiast though, especially in a car of this size and with a full load of bodies on board.
The car we drove was fitted with Volkswagen’s DSG automatic gearbox, which was adequately smooth and better than rivals, but could still be spooked into a frisson after even lightly depressing the accelerator. Initially slow to react, then eager to reach the higher rev range with a sudden change down then quickly back to sedate once more.
Switch the driving mode to Sport and the electronically adjustable shock absorbers become stiffer, and the steering becomes heavier. Avoid. Seems a bit of waste on a car like this. Such is the inoffensive nature of the Kamiq, and a nice balance between comfort and control in corners, I cannot see why you would tick this particular box.
Like many shrinking violets, the Kamiq is a weirdly passive-aggressive on occasion. For a start the lane keeping system quietly switches itself back on every time it starts up, and then gently yet insistently tugs at the wheel like a parent who has grudgingly let their kids push the supermarket trolley, but keeps redirecting it. I’m also not entirely sure what it is picking up as a white line. Variously I reckon it mis-detected mud, potholes and chip wrappers as road markings and the steering reacted.
It also kept telling me to put my hands on the wheel and resume steering. I was steering, just not very much, what with it being a straight road. This is a typical electric-steering issue, though, especially within the VW Group.
Then there’s the driving advice. Every shift down you make above 1300 rpm results in a reminder that you should have waiting a few hundred more rpm before making the change, while the programme for shift up indicator must have been nicked from a diesel. If you follow its prompts, you’ve only got about 1lb-ft of torque to spare. Hit a small incline post change and the Kamiq goes into the automotive equivalent of buffering. Nothing really occurs for quite a while – which is very much in accordance with the Kamiq’s state of gentle meandering.
Skoda Kamiq: verdict
The Kamiq was already a good car and the facelift update enhances its virtuous qualities. Some of its insipidity has been addressed with styling tweaks and interior embellishment, but the Kamiq still remains an honest, family-friendly car with a spacious and cleverly laid-out interior.
There are also no complaints about the way it drives, as it’s easy, refined enough and handles tidily, while the engine range does the job asked of it. The tiddler I drove delivers fuel economy and is quietly effective. It is not exciting, in any way.
No complaints about value, either. Starting at £24,030, the Kamiq is very competitively priced and a lot of car for the money.
In the end I rather liked the Kamiq. This is the default setting for this car, rather liking it, as opposed to loving or hating it, because there is almost nothing to get angry or annoyed about
So introverted, inoffensive and indistinct, I wonder if the Kamiq might be entirely passed by, as customers look for something with a bit more of a story, and a bit more buzz, the car you might end up with if you really can’t make your mind up about the others: a steady option, but never the car you dream of owning.
Check out our Skoda reviews